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Woman In Black - Cliched Atmospheric Thriller

There came a point in "Woman In Black" when i started to wonder: How often can Daniel Radcliffe walk down the same creepy hallway holding the same flickering candle searching for some bump in the night? It's a traditional story , where all the elements are in place : isolated mansion surrounded by marsh, mysterious deaths, frightened villagers and predictable secrets. All of this takes place in Victorian England, where superstition often trumps reason.

I think there is no need for explaining the plot. It's very simple. The story takes place in a village , where being under 10 years old is not a good thing. No Country For Young Kids would also be a suitable title for this film. The movie is based on Susan Hill's popular 1983 novel of the same name.

Analysis

This is our first look at Radcliffe following the "Harry Potter" franchise.The casting of Radcliffe is a good marketing strategy. It has elevated a limited release movie to a potential mainstream hit. As the lawyer, Arthur Kipps he doesn't bring more charisma to the movie. He is too young to play as a father for a 4-year old. Even with his square jaw and dark circles Radcliffe still looks like a boy wizard. Thankfully, the well-chosen supporting cast is on hand to stabilize the movie slightly, especially Ciaran Hinds as a skeptical local landowner and Janet McTeer as his deranged-by-grief wife.

The children also deserves praise for their unsettling stillness. The locations, particularly the marshland area of the house, and production design are memorable, with a attentive cinematography by Tim Maurice-Jones. The score effectively augments the tension. Director James Watkins, whose previous feature film credit is the 2008 horror-thriller “Eden Lake,” has an eye for ghostly atmospherics. But he is too buried in the atmosphere , and rather could have just shouted "Boo" in the viewer's face for thrills.

The climax has some kind of 'bittersweet' ending, which you could predict, if you are frequent horror movie-goer. The film avoids gore for chills, which is a good thing and remains as a traditional horror movie, but it doesn't provide enough thrills for the viewers.

Woman In black will definitely make you jump. But will you remember what forced you out of your seat a week from now or a month? Probably not.